143 SHEEP I BREEDS AND MANAGEMENT. 



CHAPTER XV. 

 EXTRAORDINARY TREATMENT OF LAMBS. 



I TRUST that those of my readers who have followed the last 

 chapters upon Sheep and their Management will not judge me 

 harshly if I now proceed to take as my special theme my own 

 breed of sheep. 



It is as lambs that they particularly excel, and I have often 

 declared a Hampshire Down ram lamb, as he appears in the 

 sale-ring at the Market House, or on the Butts, at Salisbury, 

 late in July or in early August, to be one of the wonders of the 

 world. These lambs are for the most part born between the 

 loth and the 3ist of January, and the principal fall is about the 

 2oth of that month. A few are dropped late in December, 

 but this is not thought desirable by ram-breeders, as they are 

 then apt to have passed their most perfect bloom before they 

 are disposed of. Nothing, we know, beats a January lamb ; 

 and, if we take January 2oth as the day upon which a lamb 

 is yeaned, we shall be able to show a record of a daily 

 increase in live weight of } Ib. from the day of birth to 

 August ist that is, a lamb of 144 Ibs. weight at 192 days 

 old. 



Comparing this with the increase of ordinary sheep or even 

 of cattle it is very striking, and will scarcely be credited by 

 those who are accustomed to the usual system of bringing 

 up lambs, described in the last chapter. The result shows 

 the wonderful earliness of maturity in improved Hampshire 

 Down sheep as a breed, in which quality they are unrivalled, 



